How the Explosion Happened

The construction workers at the site had gone to break, leaving their equipment behind. The tarp that was used to shade the site had blown open, letting sunlight in. A worker left his safety glasses on a table, and the sunlight refracted through the lenses onto a pile of sawdust. The tarp continued to be blown by the wind, until it slid off and caressed over the giant fan in the room. One of the rings used to hold to tarp up had caught the switch of the fan, turning it on and it blew a wheeled cart with gasoline tanks and supplies on it across the room.

The cart rolled over some cables, and this bump caused a gasoline tank without a lid on to fall over, pouring gasoline on the floor as the cart rolled further. Eventually, the pile of sawdust caught fire, and the fire followed the trail of gasoline to some tanks of highly combustible fluids. The massive explosion initiated when the fire finally reached it, causing a chain of explosions and destroyed the theater, while killing several dozen people.

Nick and Lori escaping The Theater Explosion.

Death Toll: 0

Signs/Clues

When Nick is driving to the mall, a bus can be seen with an advertising poster for the movie "Love Lays Dying" on the front of it. (When Nick saw this poster, it prompted his vision of the mall explosion.) The bus number is 235, but the poster is halfway covering the 5, revealing the number 23. This is possibly referencing the Route 23 accident from Final Destination 2.

In one of Nick's visions, nails can be seen flying towards the screen due to the theater exploding.

The viewing in which the explosion occurred was in Theatre 13, as well as at 6:00. In 24 hour time, 6:00 equals 18:00.

Lori kept seeing similar happenings in the theater audience as Nick had predicted them at the McKinley Speedway.

Lori noticed on their popcorn container it advertised a movie "Coming Soon: Til Death Do We Part"

Right before she dies, the scene Janet views is that of a bomb exploding before the real explosion occurs.

There are several quotes from the movie that indicate that a disaster is about to occur such as "Be careful!", "We'll be there in no time", "It's gonna get loud", "We'll never make it!", "It's gonna blow! Move it now!", and "Bye bye, suckers!"

In the premonition, Janet said she was meant to see this movie.

Plot Holes

Nick O'Bannon prevented this disaster by seeing it beforehand, just as he did in the beginning of the film. In theory, all the lives of people that were supposed to die in the mall explosion have been saved, and this should have set off another Final Destination sequence. It was never indicated if the people that died in Nick's premonition were killed before the trio's death. Furthermore, why hadn't Nick realized that saving those lives from a destined disaster, including Lori, Janet, and himself, would put them all on Death's list, just as it did at the beginning of the film?

This isn't a plot hole; the people (excluding Janet, Lori and Nick) who escaped the theatre were meant to have escaped; they were like Samantha Lane's two sons - They were involved in, but not casualties of the theatre explosion and weren't meant to die anyway.

At the Cafe later, Nick even summerizes this, saying "what if we were meant to be here, what if that was the plan all along." This puts a twist on the series, the theory stands that all those saved from their deaths in the previous films were likely spared for a reason. It is possible that surviving their deaths, they stand in the way to spare others. Like Terry in Final Destination, her being hit by that bus, was possibly sparing someone from a future death.

Trivia

The name Tagert was named after the director David R. Ellis' daughter.

In Final Destination 5, the brand name "Tagert" can be seen on a log truck in Sam's vision.

There are movie posters next to the entrance to the construction room for two upcoming movies, "Death Fist", and "Saving Little Kristina".

If you rearange Tagert, you will end up with the word Target, and Death, indeed, targeted Nick, Lori and Janet in Tagert theatres, or near it.

Ironically, during Love Lays Dying, there is a bridge explosion. In Final Destination 5, there is a bridge collapse.